re: College Baseball Polls Week 5Posted by lsurulz1515 on 3/18/13 at 3:18 pm to Broski

Hope this hasn't been posted yet:

Jeff (Washington D.C.): Last week you said “No team ranked above them (LSU) has more than two losses, and they've all played stronger schedules.”

Today, I come with data. LSU is 3-1 in true road games against the RPI Top 20. The only other BA top 10 team to have played a top 20 team on the road is GA Tech (2 of 3 at VT). South Carolina did take 1 game at RPI #21 Clemson. In parenthesis is the highest RPI rank of a true road opponent for the remainder of the BA top 10: UNC (102), Vanderbilt (42), Oregon State (67), Louisville (200), Ole Miss (87), Fullerton (80), Kentucky (57).

In addition to LSU’s impressive road record against the top 20, LSU has 8 wins against the RPI top 50. BA’s beloved Tar Heels have 4 (11 wins against 101-200).

The remainder of the BA top 10: Vanderbilt has 6, the battle tested Beavers have 0, Louisville has 2, South Carolina has 5, Ole Miss has 5, Fullerton has 5, GA Tech has 6 and Kentucky has 2. All of the 17+ other college baseball polls, including all of the RPI formulas, have LSU in the top 3. BA has LSU 7th.

Could you please address the LSU fans who believe BA holds a bias against their beloved Tigers?

Aaron Fitt: Hey, fans love to feel like everybody is out to get them. The media especially -- everybody knows the media is biased, right? Look, when everybody ranked ahead of you wins their series, it's hard to move up.

Who should we have dropped behind LSU this week? Ole Miss, after taking two of three at Arkansas? South Carolina, which won a conference road series and also has a nice series win against Clemson? Louisville, which had an unbeaten week and also owns a sweep against Alabama? Oregon State, which swept three at defending national champion Arizona? Vandy, which swept a road series? UNC, which took its first loss of the season but still won a quality series against Miami?

You can argue that we were too low on LSU coming into the season, when we had them No. 9, but there were legit questions about LSU coming into the season, and they've mostly been answered (I'll need to see Cody Glenn do it against SEC competition before I'm convinced the Sunday starter question is resolved).

I really like LSU, but I also really like the six teams we have ranked ahead of the Tigers. And we have been consistent for three decades with our methodology -- when the teams in front of you win, you're rarely going to jump over them.

For instance, Notre Dame went 2-2 this week, losing once to a bad UC-Santa Barbara team and once to Cal Poly. Notre Dame jumped up from 17 to 15. Mississippi State went 2-2 this week, losing to us twice. They dropped from 13 to 19

For instance, Notre Dame went 2-2 this week, losing once to a bad UC-Santa Barbara team and once to Cal Poly. Notre Dame jumped up from 17 to 15. Mississippi State went 2-2 this week, losing to us twice. They dropped from 13 to 19

Because Note Dame won their series. Baseball America has said time and time again that what happens on the weekend is most important to them. And Cal Poly is a good team. They were ranked in several other polls.

re: College Baseball Polls Week 5Posted by bas456 on 3/18/13 at 3:39 pm to AstroTiger

quote:good answer IMO

How is that a good answer? When Ole Miss swept a bad TCU team (8-11 with an RPI of 120), Ole Miss jumped from 13 to 8, ahead of LSU who went 3-0 that week. LSU is still stuck behind Ole Miss because now the rule is a winning team doesn't get jumped.